a Chinese, but being rich, he offered the family of the deceased a sum of money to suffer the affair to drop.  This was agreed to, and he paid 4000 piastres; scarcely, however, had he given the money, when the affair was represented to the Chinese magistracy, who exacted from the governor that the criminal should be instantly given up.  The latter refused, alleging, that, as the deed was committed in Macao, he was liable to the Portuguese law, according to which he would be punished if they found him guilty.  The Chinese, who wished to inflict punishment on the Portuguese, immediately on the receipt of this answer shut up all their booths, and forbade the importation of provisions into Macao; but the governor, who had two years stock of provisions for his garrison, (we shall find it was otherwise with the governor in Anson’s time) troubled himself very little with this threat, and still refused to give up the criminal; in the mean time his trial went on; he was found guilty of the murder, and immediately hanged.  The Chinese assembled with the intention of endeavouring to seize the perpetrator of the murder whilst on his way to the scaffold:  The governor collected his troops, loaded the artillery on the batteries, and awaited the attack; and, alarmed at his decisive measures, the Chinese withdrew, under the pretence of being perfectly satisfied with the execution of the murderer, and order was immediately restored.”  The work from which this is extracted is Captain Krusenstern’s account of his voyage round the world, in 1803-4-5 and 6; being the first circumnavigation the Russians have made, and that too under the patronage and by the command of the most magnanimous and beneficient Alexander, a monarch whom every friend of humanity must admire and love from the heart, as surpassing even his liberality in the promotion of useful science and discovery amongst his own subjects, by the splendour and substantial value of his services in the best interests of Europe, and the world: 

  Non possidentem multa vocaveris
  Recte beatum:  rectius occupat
  Nomen beati, qui deorum
  Muneribus sapienter uti,
  Duramque callet pauperiem pati,
  Pejusque leto flagitium timet;
  Non ille pro caris amicis
  Aut patria timidus perire.

To return to Macao:  Captain K. strongly expresses his wish that some European power of sufficient energy and consequence would take possession of it, before the Portuguese themselves abandon it to the Chinese.  It is evident he alludes to the English.  An agreement, it is very probable, might be readily entered into with the Portuguese for the possession of that place, which could not fail to prove most convenient for our eastern commerce.  An equivalent may be found among the West Indian islands; but it is perhaps equally vain and invidious to speculate on such very distant concerns, when the wonderful events now occurring in a kingdom so long the torment and the teacher of nations, arrest the imagination from every trivial selfish pursuit, and fix the mind undividedly on the operations of the great source of power, justice, and truth.  A new aera commences in the world—­May it be remarkable to all succeeding generations for liberal policy, disinterestedness, and general benevolence!—­E.